Interview with Life/Career Coach, Kathy Ogburn

Beth: Tell me the difference between a Life Coaching and Career Counseling?
Kathy: A career coach specializes in career development and includes life components but the focus is on career. Career coaching also includes very practical how-to steps. It is methodical and structured. It includes career exploration for options, and job search skills, so, resume writing, networking, interviewing, negotiating; basically, matching natural talents to the right job. Life coaching is really bigger. It is like being a personal trainer in self actualization. Life Coaching helps people to integrate their spiritual, emotional and physical selves. It is about integrating all of those aspects into their being, for the purpose of living more fully-living more and loving more. Career coaching is more nuts & bolts, like practical steps; life coaching is heavily influenced by the teachings of the law of attraction and co-creating with the Universe.

Life coaching is big on self awareness. Learning about the capital “S”, the spiritual Self, increasing our awareness of how we are all part of the Infinite Source, we are all part of that big picture and we all have a tremendous amount of power. Life coaching is empowering and helps us to see more clearly what we want and what our choices are. It empowers us to take responsibility. Being coached helps us come to the realization that we don’t have to control things. We really don’t even want to control things. Once we let go of controlling, we are open and able to work with and be supported by the Universe. And can you see how blending life and career coaching could make big changes for people?

Beth: What made you decide to move into being a Life Coach?
Kathy: The great opportunity of working with clients not only in the career compartment of their lives but in all the other parts of their lives, whatever they are excited about, whatever they are agitated about. Life coaching is a great opportunity to work with people to heal and become super empowered, actually transformed.

Beth: What kind of clients do you work with and what sort of situations might they utilize your assistance?
Kathy: People who are stuck but not willing to stay stuck…People who are confused and want clarity …People who want focus for a project…People who need staying power…People who want answers. They may be in transition type situations, creating a change, adjusting to a change, could be big or small life changes. Clients have come to me for help for a multitude of reasons, for example: deciding whether or not to have a baby, relaxing into retirement after years of being productive/re-creating personal identities to match the slower years, deciding to buy a new or used car, managing the transition of a child leaving for college, brainstorming ideas and ways to manifest, setting goals and identifying action steps, deciding to go back to work after the youngest child entered kindergarten, feeling like everything is going really well except for..., entrepreneurial clients wanting help with how to balance personal life and business life, and the list goes on. Its about working to enhance the quality of life.

Beth: What has been the best part about doing your work?
Kathy: I actually get to witness clients become a lot happier. I guess it’s watching the growth. It’s just a total thrill seeing people recognize what they are all about and how powerful they are. Making changes for the better, little and big changes. This work is so full of little changes that end up meaning so much. People take more responsibility for their lives and they become so much more aware of making conscious choices. They know that they’re responsible for themselves, their lives, how they live it and what happens to them. Watching their attitudes change and expand.

Beth: How do you feel that your work is assisting people with healing?
Kathy: Healing their attitudes, especially healing their relationship with themselves and with others. Also, healing their relationship with God.

Beth: What drew you to work out of the space in Colfax, Bridges To Healing?
Kathy: I love Beth! Her generous spirit and her resourcefulness. I see her Center as having so much potential with what is being done there. Beth is very capable of bringing people together, those that heal and those that need healing, the learners and the teachers. To me, it truly is a center where there’s just a lot of building of self respect and self love and compassion for others through all the modalities that are there. I am very interested in yoga, psychic healing, body work, reiki and healing touch. People I have referred are blown away.

Beth: Where are you from originally?
Kathy: I’m a California native, born in the Bay area, grew up in Lodi. I moved to Sacramento for college and lived in that area until moving to Grass Valley.

Beth: What brought you to this area?
Kathy: I’ve been coming to Grass Valley since I was a child to visit family friends. As an adult, my husband and I would for the ambience and nature that is Nevada County. The big draw is the combination of living the country lifestyle and having cultural activities galore. It was always a dream of my husband’s and mine, since we first got together to build a house up in the foothills, out in the country, so it really is an actual life dream that we have fulfilled. We are living our dream!

Beth: Where did you train for life coaching work?
Kathy: The Coaches Training Institute which has been around for 15 years. They are the Cadillac of coaching schools. I believe that their teaching is influenced by both the practical and the spiritual.